High Points: Fire on the mountain

It was an awesome sight.

I had never seen anything in Aspen quite as imposing as the fire that raged above the Sunnyside Trail this past Monday. I had read in The Aspen Times that morning that there was going to be a prescribed burn in the afternoon, but nothing prepared me for the massive cloud of smoke as the flames consumed the old growth on the hillsides above town on an otherwise perfectly clear day.

I started humming the Grateful Dead song “Fire on the Mountain” with the lyric, “There’s a dragon with matches that’s loose on the town/Takes a whole pail of water just to cool him down.” Fortunately, there were enough resources in the hands of local and regional firefighters to cool down that 900-acre dragon before the wind came up.

If there is a High Point to what is shaping up to potentially be a very concerning fire season, it is that the Times has been all over the threat, giving us ample warnings to be ready.

A wake-up call came in a cover story on April 11 that talked about the potential risk for “burnover” in Aspen. Burnover refers to a firestorm that outstrips the capability of personnel and equipment to contain it as it moves rapidly through a community. Think Pacific Palisades or Altadena or Lahaina. In just the last 20 months, those places have suffered catastrophic losses in fast acting fires that defied control.

The story, a special to The Aspen Times by Beau Toepfer (a former news editor for Aspen High School’s Skier Scribbler, it should be noted) accurately reported that, in addition to the dry early season conditions and the overgrowth of fire fuels throughout the Valley, Aspen is unique in that we have just two ways of egress.

It is hard to imagine a fire forcing the entire Aspen community to flee, either up Independence Pass or down Highway 82, past the roundabout, as a wildfire raged on either side of town. But it needs to be considered.

On Tuesday, in another important fire related story, Aspen Times reporter Colin Suszynski explained the what, the why, and the how of Monday’s “Sunnyside Prescribed Fire.” Suszynski took us behind the scenes and above the flames as he followed the chronology of the fire from the time it was first set until the crews began their mop up duties. The way in which the fire is ignited using ping-pong-ball-sized ignitors filled with something called potassium permanganate powder was fascinating. And it was interesting to learn that there was a 75-person team of firefighters and a helicopter on the job. He reported that the “Forest Service plans to conduct mitigation on more than 40,000 acres of land from Aspen to Glenwood Springs and slightly beyond, to provide the valley with additional fire mitigated acreage and bolstered biodiversity.” We are counting on an already stressed agency to do a big job.   

Ironically, Suszynski’s piece shared the front page with a story by Westley Crouch about two fires this past Saturday in Old Snowmass and Basalt that were caused by human activity.

“Your fuels are dry right now,” said Richard Cornelius, the deputy chief of operations for Roaring Fork Fire and Rescue, in Crouch’s article. “Drier fuels and relative humidity are certainly not what you would expect this time of year.”

That’s an understatement.  

Now is the time to come up with a plan as to how you would respond if the smoke you saw on our local mountains was not a prescribed burn but rather an emerging wildfire. Do you have an escape plan? Do you know how to connect with loved ones if you are separated? How about a packed “Go-Bag” for emergencies?

The Aspen Times reporters will be on the scene all summer long covering any and all things fire related.

Make sure to pay attention, and be prepared.